A New Observing System for the Collection of Fishery and Oceanographic Data

Fishing vessels represent a great opportunity to carry out repeated and continuous observations on both fishing and environmental parameters in coastal areas. In 2003, a Fishery Observing System (FOS) was developed by ISMAR- CNR, within the framework of the EU research program Mediterranean Forecasting System: Toward an Environmental Prediction (MFSTEP), with the aim to exploit this great potential. Eight fishing vessels belonging to Adriatic fleet, targetting anchovy and sardine, were equipped with FOS instrumentation in order to collect geo-referenced catch data, associated with in-situ temperature and depth. The system is nowadays still working in the Adriatic Sea, collecting very important data for the evaluation of the fishing effort and the influence of the environment on the abundance distribution of the target species.